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Recycling something and giving it another life is a terrific way of saving some money (especially done over a period of time) and also stimulates your creative energy.

My kids also enjoy it and they see the benefits first hand of recycling and reducing waste. My youngest has gotten pretty good at finding a second life for things and she uses a lot of odds and ends for art projects.

Some of the last few that we did were:

1) My husband used two thick wooden beams (that had been in his shed) to make a balance beam for the kids in the back yard.

2) A tea cup saucer became a place for butterflies to drink by adding some small rocks and water.

3) Some old picket fence panels got painted and used to block off the pool pump.

4) Crushed up cookies at the bottom of the bag get tossed on top of pudding or ice cream. (my kids love this!)

5) Old washcloths and towels become cleaning rags

6) Sunday comics to wrap the kids Christmas gifts (they think this is cute!).

7) A very large piece of cardboard became a mobile jigsaw puzzle holder while it's being worked on.

8) we save buttons, tassels, old earrings, greeting cards, etc to use for art & craft projects.

9) an old plastic container became our buried time capsule.

10) Four wheels from a table left behind by the people who used to live here became the wheels for Buddie's (our iguana) cage...even though she's hardly ever in it. We only use it when people are over.

11) We created a bird restaurant from our old Christmas tree. When it was time for a new tree, we took the old one (it's artificial) and planted it in the yard. The kids strung popcorn using a needle and thread, and we placed it all around the tree. Then, my husband screwed hooks in some very large pine cones, we tied ribbons to them, put peanut butter on, rolled them around in birdseed and hung them by the ribbons. The birds love it.

These are just some of the things we've done recently. Besides saving money, it's a good feeling knowing that you're mindfully thinking of reducing waste before just throwing items away.

Learn more about this author, Joanne Greco.
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